Alas, alack and alay.

Matt's grandparents - sweet, wonderful people that they are, sent us a Valentine's box. With chocolate in it.

Serving size: 4 pieces. Net carbohydrates per serving: 20g. That means each piece of chocolate has approximately 5g of carbs. That's 1/4 of the total amount of carbs I'm allowed in a day.

And who can eat just one piece of chocolate? Not me.

So I brought the box in and left it in the office kitchen. Nearly half the office is on some diet or other, but I'm hoping the other half will eat the chocolate for us.

I had a fantastic writing day yesterday. I wrote about 1500 words - more in a single day than I've managed since Penny was born, I think. And I'm pretty happy with them, too. I didn't cringe when I re-read them and think, "Well, that's got to be re-done."

Another 500 words or so should finish the chapter. Which will be good, since I've been more or less neglecting my work in order to write. I think this morning I will polish off the chapter, and then I should spend the rest of today and tomorrow doing actual, y'know, work.

I was going to do a rant this morning, on the topic of gay marriage and civil unions and the hoo-ha coming down because of the Massachusetts State Supreme Court's ruling that gay marriage should be allowed.

But I don't want to do it half-heartedly, and I want to make sure I've got all my facts straight, and I want to be able to provide links for people who want to check up on my information - and I'm interested in other people's feedback. So I'm going to take a few days to compose the rant, and then I'll probably post it in my blog.

But just in case you were wondering, that's the political issue that's been occupying my thoughts lately.

(There are approximately three political issues which I feel very strongly about, though their precise ranking shuffles from time to time: gay rights, abortion rights, and censorship. If you've read me for any length of time, even though I hardly ever actually talk about politics, I'm sure you know that I lean fairly strongly left of center, and I'm sure you can guess exactly where I stand on all those issues.)

And lastly, because we can't have a day without Penny... (TMI warning: diaper issues ahead)

Last week, when Penny was diagnosed with double ear infections, she was put on antibiotics. About two days later, she came up with diarrhea, and the associated diaper rash. We were pretty sure it was because of the antibiotic, but not entirely sure. Mostly because of its weird pattern - it would start up first thing in the morning, then clear up around lunchtime, and not show up again until the evening.

Then I came down with the stomach uck on the same day Penny threw up, and we wondered if maybe she was just having an extended bout of stomach uck.

But yesterday the diarrhea did not clear up all day, and after Matt had a particularly thrilling diaper change that cycled through four diapers before he ever got her off the changing table, we called the doctor.

"Oh, Augmentin's notorious for causing diarrhea," the doctor said.

So she's off the antibiotic as of this morning - the doctor decided that nine days instead of ten was a good enough run. We'll wait twenty-four hours or so for the last of it to clear out of her system, and see how she's doing then.

Poor little girl. Considering she's been sick for most of the last two months, she's been in remarkably good spirits. I'm just praying that once the weather warms up a bit, the daycare won't become quite as much of a hive of disease.

--Liz